[slate]
[slate] Well the commercial crew
program is working with the aerospace
industry to launch astronauts on American rockets
from American soil to and from the
International Space Station.
And the goal of the program is to have safe, reliable and cost-effective
transportation to and from the ISS.
That’ll allow additional research
time, it saves NASA a substantial amount of money because there's
competition - these are fix-priced contracts.
And the flight that we’re about
to have is the fourth with NASA astronauts
on a SpaceX vehicle.
[slate]
[slate] Well when NASA partners with
companies like SpaceX and Boeing it’s openning
space to more people. More science, most commercial opportunities.
NASA’s goal is to be
just one of the many costomers of these companies that
it can provide human transportation to orbit.
And we’re already seeing other providers book commercial
missions with private passengers. We
set out on this path over ten years ago.
It’s exciting to see the vision start
to soar.
[slate]
Well with Boeing and SpaceX and their human
missions to and from the International Space Station carrying four astronauts
apiece, it’s going to expand the number of crew members
at the ISS, and that will
effectively double the amount of crew time that we can devote to research
technology, possible only
in the International Space Station’s unique
almost zero-gravity environment.
The station is critical for NASA to understand
and overcome the challenges of long-duration space
flight.
And we are having astronauts stay there for long-term because
we’re getting ready to send them to the
Moon for long-duration missions. And then think when
we go to Mars, it’s going to be a long time getting there,
on the surface, and getting back
[slate]
Checkout nasa.gov for updates on
NASA’s SpaceX Crew 3 mission.